Mago Claims Ryu Is Stronger Than People Think

VARREL Mago, a pro Japanese player, has come out with his assertion that Ryu is a much stronger character in Season 2 of Street Fighter 6. 

He made this claim during one of his streams as he made use of the character telling his stream that he believes Ryu is pretty strong this season and could even be tournament viable. 

It is no secret that Ryu got quite a few buffs going into season 2 and people were excited for him, or at least they acted that way. In reality however, it seems Ryu is still as unpopular as he was in season 1 with the major beneficiaries being those who are Ryu mains. 

Ryu is still pretty low on the legend ranking leaderboard, and very few players have switched to him in tournament. 

Mago believes that Daigo Umehara, one of the greatest fighting game players, should switch to him and he stated that the problem seems to be that no one is trying him out. Mago added that he thinks Ryu is quite strong this season and looks quite tempting. 

Mago did use Ryu for the Legendus tournament with his student, Futon-chan, but finished quite low. 

While Mago seemed quite interested in the character, he did say that he would not be using him, and the consensus seems to be that none of the other top players will be going for him either. Daigo has instead switched to Akuma, while Kakeru, who first became popular for an audacious finish to his Evo set vs Caba in 2023, while using Ryu in Street Fighter V, also made the switch to Akuma and didn't pick up his main from the previous game. 

All this suggest that while Ryu might be stronger, he might not have grown strong enough to make others switch to him.